20 May 2013

Art I like - Guiseppi Capogrossi

A chunky new book in the library introduced me to Capagrossi (1900-1972). He studied law before turning to painting, and went to Paris in 1927, the first of several trips there. His postwar "renewal of language" is an excursion into abstract painting - paintings mostly entitled "Surface", with a numeral added.

The Guggenheim had a major retrospective of his work in 2012 to "explore Capogrossi’s unique contribution to 20th-century art, tracing the evolution of his signature abstract style of grandiose orchestrations of mark and color, and its numerous variations over the subsequent decades. With his endlessly inventive deployment of his fork-like symbol, Capogrossi became synonymous with the Italian boom of the 50s and 60s, a period of optimism and rapid economic expansion."

About that distinctive symbol: "Capogrossi first exhibited works in his fully realized abstract idiom at the Galleria del Secolo in Rome in 1950. Two paintings from that show, Surface 021 (1949) and Surface 678 (Carthage, 1950), marked the emergence of the glyph which became essential to his style: a serrated arc, sometimes assembled in sequences and series, sometimes painted with a single dominant color. The originality of this formal syntax earned Capogrossi membership in the brief but impassioned Gruppo Origine, which promoted his glyphs as a primordial language that stood in contrast to the decorative tendency of abstraction. "

"Grandiose orchestrations of mark and colour" - indeed. See more here and here.

Tuesday is Drawing Day - why not join in, wherever you are? Find somewhere that has interesting things - it needn't be a museum, it could be your own home! - and just draw, using whatever media you want. Ask some friends to join you, then have a nice lunch.

The London group has grown to the point where it's getting difficult to find a cafe table large enough, and reluctantly I must say that it is no longer open to new members.